300 Bones
by eshadlow
Summary: How much can Brennan truly learn from the study of a person's skeleton? Fluffy B/B One-Shot.


Title: 300 Bones

Pairing: Booth/Brennan

Rating: G

Spoilers: None specific

Summary: How much can Brennan truly learn from a study of a persons bones?

Author's Note: This is for Kate who is having a rough time and deserves something to make her smile. Not beta-ed because she's the only one I trust to do it and, well, it's supposed to be a surprise. My first Bones fic! And my first fic in a long time so go easy please.

* * *

She sits on the couch in her office, attention fixed on the pictures in her hands. She has been looking at them on and off all day; pausing in the middle of other tasks to pick them up off of the desk once more and study them. By now the details must be imprinted into her brain and yet, she is here, making yet another study of the specimen before her.

Well, not exactly before her. She only has photographs to work from at the moment. The actual body will come to her in time. In the meantime, she seems determined to learn all she can from the images.

Slowly, gently fingers trace the line of a femur, mentally calculating age. Eyes follow the line around the skull, measuring circumference; looking for flaws, for breaks in the seamless line of bone. One by one she counts the individual vertebrae, naming them each in her head as she goes. '_C6, C7, T1...'_ She is yet to find a single problem with the specimen, a single flaw in the skeleton. And for once, this is the best answer she could ever hope for.

"Have you put them down yet, Bones?" A teasing voice from the doorway causes her to turn, an ever-widening smile spreading over her face when she recognizes her intruder.

"I'll have you know I've been working very hard all day, Booth" she informs her partner. "I was just taking a little break."

The couch sinks a little as he come to sit, his presence a pleasant weight and warmth beside her. "So what exactly are you doing?" he asks softly as he leans over to share the pictures.

"Studying her," she replies tracing the lines of the body depicted before her. "Learning everything I can about her."

She feels him shift a little beside her and there is a moment before he speaks. "What have you learned?" he finally asks, the slightest trace of apprehension hiding in the back of his voice – such a slight trace that anyone who didn't know him as well as she does wouldn't even detect it.

"Well," she begins, "her skull is normal for developmental age, as is her femur length." She indicates each body part as she goes, spreading the pictures out across their knees. "All her vertebrae are intact and perfectly formed and all metatarsals and distal phalanges are intact." She counts each finger and toe as she goes before bringing one last picture to the front of the pile.

"Don't tell me about the bones, tell me about her," he prompts in his low voice. "Tell me what you have learned about her."

Brennan pauses for a moment then answers. "Well," she begins, her voice a little wary. "She's perfect. She's healthy and she's perfect and she's ours." She raises her face from studying the photographs and turns to meet his eyes. Her smile is genuine despite the slight hint of fear in her voice and her eyes are shining and joyous.

Booth can't help but smile back at her as he reaches out to touch her face, his hand ghosting gently as it removes a wayward strand of hair from her cheek. "Yeah Bones, she's ours." His tone is reassuring and for a moment she's not sure whom is comforting, her or himself.

It makes her realize that he has held a genuine fear about her acceptance of this baby, this child whom they have unintentionally created – how much they must have weighed on him these past 4 months. She turns her head slightly to place a gentle kiss on his palm, offering her own comfort, her own reassurance. "I just can't wait to meet her," she tells him. "These pictures tell me so little, I just want to hold her and study her and figure out who she is now, who she is going to be." She trails off a little, looking up to meet his gaze. "To figure out who I am with her."

Booth leans down and gently, softly kisses her mouth, the hand on her cheek moving to settle against the back of her neck, fingers gently rubbing circles into her flesh. "You will be exactly who you want to be." His tone is firm now, reassuring and certain. "I know you didn't plan to ever do this and I won't tell you it won't change you because it will. But you will still be you, and I will still be me. And all that's going to change is that we will have something else, someone else, to share our lives with."

Brennan nods, not trusting her voice not to crack or waiver if she answers him verbally. There is comfortable silence between the couple as they settle against each other on the couch, Booth drawing her in close to kiss her on the head. She pulls away slowly, lifting the final ultrasound picture from the pile and studying it once more. She marvels over the perfect profile of their daughter, over the tiny hands – one reaching forward as if to catch something, the other with its thumb firmly stuck in her mouth – and is once again struck by the majesty and power that the body can possess.

"She really is perfect," Booth tells her, his hand joining hers to trace the photograph. "All 206 bones of her."

"300," Brennan corrects him with a slight chuckle. "All 300 bones of her."

* * *

Did you know there are 300 bones in the body of a newborn? True fact I promise!

This fic was inspired by the amazing and perfect ultrasound pictures my cousin sent me last week.


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